The story for 4 was decent at best, but it quickly died in episode 5 and only got worse as more movies began to come out. The only reason I kept watching them as they came out was because I was still 8 when Episode I came out in theatres and Star Wars had really cool fight scenes.

As much as I hate the movies though, I find myself loving everything about the expanded universe, especially the Old Republic era and the adventures of the 501st Legion.

It's the same characters, same universe, but George Lucas isn't calling the shots. He's a terrible story teller...

The only influence Lucas actually had on the Expanded Universe were his movies affecting the Canon Lore. He didn't take much part in projects outside his films.

Besides, the man has totally butchered his story 20 times over now with his re-releases every year. The guy is an egomaniacal freak.

-Han no longer shot first, and he denies that he ever did so in the first place. Even after being shown the original version of the movie.
-He denied for years that the Star Wars Life Day special ever existed.
-He decided people shouldn't think Boba Fett is such a bad ass, so he gave the Sarlacc a mouth to eat him and ensure he was dead, completely throwing all of the Expanded Universe content about him out the ******* window.

There are thousands of hardcore Star Wars fans just like me who hate everything Lucas had to do with Star Wars, and yes even though he was the one who created it in the first place.

You can be a fan of a product and still be able to critique it. Transformers fans do nothing but bitch about the new toys that come out, yet they still buy every one of them don't they?

I liked the movies as a kid, but as I grew up I realized they just weren't that good. I didn't grow out of Star Wars though, because the expanded universe had much more to offer, with much better people writing the stories for the novels, the comics and the video games.

And please don't compare Tolkien to Lucas, they don't even come close.